In the "teens" at last

Well, come Monday morning I'm going to be a "teen" again. That's right, tomorrow morning when I arrive at work I'll have only 19 days left on the clock before I turn off my office computer for the last time, hand over my keys, and say adios to the Nevada Department of Public Safety. It's been a strange twelve years to say the least.

I wasn't hired by Public Safety; it was more like I was Shanghaied. Twelve years ago I was happily working for the Department of Parole and Probation as their Management Analyst. I had just been promoted to that Department's one-and-only Network Specialist because most of my MA duties had, in fact, revolved around keeping the agency network running. Even though I had no formal training as a Network Specialist, had never even seen a network when I was put in charge of one, I managed to keep all my users happily computing for seven years starting in 1989. My duties ranged from running co-ax cable, building computers out of spare parts, and writing database software, to supervising the data-entry unit, functioning as resident statistician, and planning for yearly technology expenditures.

But in 1996 everything changed. That's when the Department of Parole and Probation became a division within the Department of Public Safety. Unfortunately, one of the first things that the new expanded Department of Public Safety did was pull all technology staff into one location to work under one supervisor. Instantly I went from being a big fish in a very small pond who reported directly to the Chief of P&P, to a very tiny fish in a huge pond where no one really thought I had enough experience to be working in the job to which I had just been promoted. To say they really didn't want me on the team is probably understating it.

Still, it seems that I have outlasted all my detractors. I've faithfully performed my duties to the best of my ability for twelve years and been absent from my workstation the merest handful of days in all that time. In fact, even after giving away literally hundreds of hours of my sick leave to less fortunate fellow employees, I'll still be retiring with over 1,750 hours of sick leave on the books and 300 hours of annual leave.

Along the way I've made a lot of friendships that I will always treasure. Because the agency relegated me to desktop support for most of my career here, I was able to move throughout the division helping an wonderful variety of folks with a daunting variety of problems, which kept the job exciting, interesting, and rewarding. So, though I didn't get to rise in management as I surely would have done if I had remained at Parole and Probation, I gained a much wider appreciation of technology from the ground up. In the trenches is where the action is. Pushing paper will never be as rich.

Enough said.

Tom the Viking

Here, with a nod toward the Burtons who trace their lineage to Normandy and the Vikings, is me in my Teutonic raiment.

This morning I've reached the 21-day mark on my count-down to retirement. Twenty-one days! It's almost impossible to grasp the enormity of it. After twenty-five years of state government, and over forty some odd years of showing up somewhere every morning at 7:00 or 8:00 a.m., I'll have nowhere I must be every day. I'll actually be able to read the morning paper in the morning! What a concept.

Plans for the trip to the UK continue unabated though Delta playfully continues to tinker with our flight numbers and, at times, intermediate stops. I think the only area of the country they don't have us stopping is Alaska, which I'm sure they've at least considered.

Yesterday I emailed the rental agent for the mini we're going to be driving asking that he send me a .jpg of the car so I can post it here. I hoping for a red one so everyone can avoid me when I make traffic mistakes. They drive on the "wrong" side of the road, you know. In 1973 when I lived on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean for several months I found that everyone drove on the left side. I actually made the switch rather easily. We were riding motorbikes most of the time, but I even successfully drove a big Ford station wagon on malta's tiny roads without incident.

This week I made another incursion into heretofore avoided areas of technology and loaded up a gift IPod with several hundred jazz, classical, and folk tunes to listen to on the airplane should their in-house music prove wanting. On our recent trip to Florida, the airliner's canned music was awful. The IPod doesn't take up much room and I was taking the "noise-cancelling" headphones anyway.

Right now I'm listening to Celtic music, which reminds me of a book I recently finished. It's called Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland.It's available through Amazon for as little as $8.50. The book is a great read if you're interested in learning about your British ancestors. The author, Bryan Sykes, uses DNA testing to determine just what impact various immigrants and invaders have had on British genetic makeup. When I had the National Geographic genetic test done, I learned that my ancestors spent the last big ice age holed up in Spain. Sykes says that later, a coastal contingent of these Spaniards sailed north to the British Isles and became what we consider to be the Celts. The most surprising thing I learned from Saxons, Vikings, and Celts was the relatively small impact the various late-comers -- the Vikings, the Angles, the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Normans -- have had on the genetic makeup of the islands. I won't spoil it for you. You'll have to read the book, something I heartily recommend.

Six months and one day left before retirement

Today, I'm going to start this blog as I count down to retirement. My last day is in August. Soon after, Concetta and I are going to catch a Delta flight from Reno, and, with a four-hour stopover in Atlanta, head out over the Atlantic toward our ultimate destination, Edinburgh, Scotland. Because this trip is a sort of retirement present, I'm going to be doing most of the planning. So far, we've nailed down the airline tickets, the rental car, and the first four B&Bs where we will be staying as we travel from Edinburgh to Wales, to England, and back to Scotland.

The car we want to rent, just for kicks and giggles, is the Mini-cooper S model. Boy, they're not cheap. After some research I finally found one for about half again more than a standard rental sedan, which I consider to be reasonable. Right-hand drive is going to be a little challenging at first, however I do have some experience with driving on the left side of the road when I lived for some months on the island of Malta back in the early 1970s. I found you get used to it pretty quick. The round-a-bouts are a little hair-raising, but you soon master even those.

My next challenge is going to be acquiring a GSM quad band cell phone, which I consider to be essential for this trip. On our recent trip to Italy, we found that the thing me missed the most was our ability to communicate any time we wanted. Right now I'm leaning toward "Brightroam" through which you can acquire the GSM phone, and the necessary SIM card with the necessary time on your account to cover the period we will be gone. Then you need only acquire a new SIM for your next destination when you get ready to travel again. There's no contracts, monthly bills, or trips to the phone store. Everything is done on the web.

Anyway, welcome to the "Happy Wanderers" blog. I'll try and keep you posted as I do my planning and eventually take to the skies.

Buona sera. Ciao.